


Pollen

by Pappels (SabakuNoKel)



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Allergies, Gen, Hay Fever, I'm glad I don't have allergies, Moana Spring Exchange 2018, Prompt Fic, Sickfic, poor Tamatoa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 22:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14318259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SabakuNoKel/pseuds/Pappels
Summary: Tamatoa hates spring





	Pollen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jadewolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadewolf/gifts).



> My it's been a long time since I've posted anything hasn't it...  
> Anyway! This is my submission for the Moana gift exchange Spring Edition!
> 
> This prompt was submitted by my friend Jadewolf and it was; It's springtime in Lalotai. Tamatoa has allergies.
> 
> Enjoy!

"Ugh." Tamatoa groaned, feeling absolutely miserable. His head was throbbing, his eyes were watering and itchy and he didn’t even have the strength to so much as lift his antennae from where they hung limp onto the ground.

This much agony could only mean one thing.

Spring had come to Lalotai and Tamatoa was already sick of it. Literally.

Now most monsters didn’t really notice or even care about the shift in seasons but he was one of the unfortunate few who did due to one little thing—or rather, _millions_ of little things.

Namely all the pollen filling the air.

It was astonishing how such tiny specks could cause so much trouble. Simply breathing had become a painful ordeal, his throat feeling sore and scratchy and constantly dry, and the worst thing was that he couldn’t even hide inside his shell since the pollen managed to get in there as well. He might have been able to escape it if he could burrow underground, like when he had to molt, but since he hadn't been prepared for the sudden airborne infestation to descend upon him all he could do now was endure it.

Tamatoa sighed, or he would have if inhaling a breathe of air hadn't tickled the back of his throat and caused him to sneeze instead. A sharp stab of pain erupted in his head as the sneeze wracked through him, making him hiss and close his eyes tightly, spots dancing across his eyelids.

He _really_ hated spring.

"Uuuuugh…"

"That's not the kind of welcome I usually get."

Opening his eyes again took a lot more effort than he would have liked, especially since the spots hadn't cleared enough yet for him to see who was stupid enough to bother him when he was clearly suffering.

"Oh, it's just you." He said when he was able to see again.

Maui looked annoyed by the less than enthusiastic greeting but his expression gave way to a look of confusion as he looked at the slumped over form of the giant crab.

"What's wrong with you, crabcake? You look terrible." Maui pointed out, insultingly blunt as always. Tamatoa scowled.

"Gee, thanks." He said, shooting the demigod a half-hearted glare. Maui just shrugged in a, _well, it's true_ sort of way, which Tamatoa only decided to let slide since he really wasn’t in the mood to argue with him right now.

"It's _spring_ ," He explained instead, spitting the word out like it had personally insulted him, which it had if you asked him. "all the pollen in the air is making me sick."

Maui tilted his head, his brows drawn together. "Hold up, you're allergic to _pollen_?" Maui paused, blinked, then burst out; "How is that even possible? You don’t have a nose!"

Tamatoa flinched. Maui's shouting was not helping his headache.

"And you do have a nose and aren't sick so I don't see what that has to do with it." He retorted.

"That's not the same—" Maui cut himself off, holding up his hands as he took a deep breath. "Never mind. So, allergies? That must suck, big ol' crab monster like you being taken down by itty bitty bits of pollen."

Tamatoa narrowed his eyes. Just because he was feeling a little under the weather didn’t mean he couldn’t still take anybody on, Maui included.

"Wanna find out how 'down' I really am?" He said, snapping his pincer at the demigod.

Maui slung his hook onto his shoulder, grinning cockily. "Nah, I'd just feel bad beating you when you're sick."

Tamatoa felt a growl building in his chest but what came out instead was a terrible sounding series of coughs. He quickly covered his mouth with his claw as his whole body shook with the force of the violent convulsions, tears leaking out of his eyes from the painful burning sensation spreading from his throat down to his chest. It took several minutes for the coughing fit to pass, his breathing slowly returning to normal as the coughs tapered off.

Tamatoa grimaced as he swallowed. It felt like his throat had been scraped raw.

Raising himself on shaky legs he shuffled over to his drinking pool to take a few sips of water. The water soothed his sore throat somewhat so he drank some more before moving back to his spot where he flopped down with a tired grunt. Damn, he was exhausted from just those few steps. Maybe Maui had been right after all.

Speaking of Maui, the demigod was watching him with a helpless expression that was the complete opposite of the cocky grin he'd worn before Tamatoa had nearly hacked up a lung.

"Those allergies really got you bad, huh." Maui said, softly.

"Hm." Tamatoa grunted. He didn’t like to admit it but it was obvious how much his allergies were affecting him. He'd probably have trouble beating a Kakamora if one of those thieving little pirates decided to show up now.

"So what's the source of all this pollen then? I've never seen any flowers growing down here." Maui asked, thankfully changing the subject.

It wasn’t strange that Maui had never seen any flowers in Lalotai since the realm's lack of sunlight didn’t do much to encourage their growth. There were still some that managed to grow despite that though, growing slowly and then blooming and spreading their disgusting pollen everywhere once spring rolled around, which thankfully only happened every couple of centuries or so.

The worst offenders by far were the giant flowers that grew a few miles north from his home. The flowers were large enough that a full grown human could stand in the center without worry of it snapping and because they were so big they released a large quantity of pollen, so much so that on some days you could actually see the pollen on the wind, like a swarm of glowing, pulsating bugs.

He relayed all of this to Maui who got a thoughtful look in his eye that usually meant he was up to something but before he could ask what the demigod was planning Tamatoa let out a sudden loud yawn.

"You tired?" Maui asked.

Tamatoa grunted, struggling to keep his eyes open. That coughing fit from before must have tired him out.

Maui chuckled at the sleepy crab monster. "Take a nap, crabcake. I'll keep myself busy."

He would have protested, he didn’t like leaving someone in his lair when he couldn’t keep an eye on them even if Maui knew better than to steal from him, but he really was tired.

He let out another yawn, this one even louder than the last.

Well that settled it. He was going to nap. He'd barely laid his face on his claw and closed his eyes before he was out like a snuffed candle.

\--

When Tamatoa woke from his nap he felt a lot better, surprisingly enough. His eyes tingled with residual sleep and his mouth was a little dry but he felt leagues better than he had before he'd fallen asleep. He wondered at the sudden change but figured the wind had simply changed direction, putting him out of the immediate path of all that terrible pollen.

Well whatever the reason he was grateful for the temporary relief.

Now that he was no longer feeling miserable he became aware of how hungry he actually was. After luring some food down he looked around the lair and noticed Maui wasn’t around anymore. He wondered where the demigod had gotten off to and as if on cue Maui walked in, covered nearly head-to-toe in bright, glowing stains of pollen.

Maui looked surprised to see him up and about, eyes lighting up. "Hey, you're awake! Feeling better?"

"A little. What have you been up to?" He flicked an antenna at the demigod, indicating all the disgusting pollen that was clinging to him. Maui looked down at himself, looking unbothered by the horrible substance sticking to him.

"Oh, I found those giant flowers you were talking about so I chopped them down and moved them downwind so they wouldn’t bother you so much." Maui rubbed his nose, leaving behind a bright smear of pollen. "You should move to a different location if those flowers keep giving you trouble though. I know spring doesn’t come around here often but I'm not demoting myself to gardener every time you get the sniffles."

Tamatoa snorted. "And give up this prime real estate? I don’t think so." Where else was he going to find a place with a skylight that doubled as a food chute? Still, it was… nice of Maui to help him out like that. Unexpected. It wasn’t like Maui to go out of his way to help when there was nothing in it for him, after all.

Which reminded him.

"What did you come down here for anyway?" Maui only came to Lalotai when he wanted something new to impress the humans with and there were only two reasons why he would come to Tamatoa's lair; either he wanted information or the item he was after was already in his collection.

" _Wellll_ , I was looking for the Mask of Kamapua'a and I figured _my good friend_ Tamatoa probably has it in his collection and _because_ he's such a good friend he wouldn’t mind if I borrowed it for a couple of decades?" Maui said, voice turning pleading as he blinked up at the crab monster, hands clasped out in front of him. Tamatoa resisted to urge to roll his eyes. That was more like the Maui he knew. Now normally he wouldn’t consider parting with a one of a kind item, especially since the last time he loaned something to Maui the demigod had conveniently 'lost' it, but since Maui had gone out of his way to help him out when he didn’t need to Tamatoa supposed he should return the kindness. Just this once.

"Fine." He sighed. He quickly found the intricately carved boar mask (the benefit of keeping your treasure trove well organized) and handed it over to Maui. The demigod looked a little stunned at how easily Tamatoa had parted with the mask but wisely kept his mouth shut, the crab could still demand it back after all.

"Now get out of here, you're covered in pollen and I don't want to get sick again." Tamatoa said, making a shooing motion. Maui had what he came for and Tamatoa had more than enough social interaction for one day.

Maui shook his head fondly. "Yeah, yeah. Just try not to get sick again while I'm gone, okay, crabcake." He said before whipping his hook around and shapeshifting into a hawk, mask firmly held in his talons as he swooped out of the lair.

Tamatoa looked at the empty spot where the demigod had stood for another second before turning around to see if something in his collection needed polishing.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe this is the only fic I've finished since the last exchange back in December, I'm so sorry to everyone who's been waiting for me to write but real life has been tough recently. My housemate has been going through some things and I've been trying to help so I haven't really been motivated to write these past few months. I'm staying positive and hoping that things will get better soon though.
> 
> My tumblr http://pepperedappels.tumblr.com/


End file.
